IPSO * indicates subject to public interest exceptions.
2. *Privacy
i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.
ii) Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. In considering an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information and the extent to which the material complained about is already in the public domain or will become so.
iii) It is unacceptable to photograph individuals, without their consent, in public or private places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
IMPRESS PRIVACY
7.1 Except where justified by the public interest, publishers must respect people’s reasonable expectation of privacy. Such an expectation may be determined by factors that include, but are not limited to, the following:
a) The nature of the information concerned, such as whether it relates to intimate, family, health or medical matters or personal finances;
b) The nature of the place concerned, such as a home, school or hospital;
c) How the information concerned was held or communicated, such as in private correspondence or a personal diary;
d) The relevant attributes of the person, such as their age, occupation or public profile; and e) Whether the person had voluntarily courted publicity on a relevant aspect of their private life.
7.2 Except where justified by the public interest, publishers must:
a) Not use covert means to gain or record information;
b) Respect privacy settings when reporting on social media content; and
c) Take all reasonable steps not to exacerbate grief or distress through intrusive newsgathering or reporting.
Ofcom
To ensure that broadcasters avoid any unwarranted infringement of privacy in programmes and in connection with obtaining material included in programmes.
Rule
8.1 Any infringement of privacy in programmes, or in connection with obtaining material included in programmes, must be warranted.
Meaning of "warranted":
In this section "warranted" has a particular meaning. It means that where broadcasters wish to justify an infringement of privacy as warranted, they should be able to demonstrate why in
the particular circumstances of the case, it is warranted. If the reason is that it is in the public interest, then the broadcaster should be able to demonstrate that the public interest outweighs the right to privacy. Examples of public interest would include revealing or detecting crime, protecting public health or safety, exposing misleading claims made by individuals or organisations or disclosing incompetence that affects the public.
BBC 7.1
The BBC respects privacy and does not infringe it without good reason, wherever in the world it is operating. The Human Rights Act 1998 gives protection to the privacy of individuals, and private information about them, but balances that with a broadcaster's right to freedom of expression. In regulation, the Ofcom Broadcasting Code states "Any infringement of privacy in programmes, or in connection with obtaining material included in programmes, must be warranted." (Rule 8.1, Ofcom Broadcasting Code)
Meeting these ethical, regulatory and legal obligations in our output requires consideration of the balance between privacy and our right to broadcast information in the public interest. We must be able to demonstrate why an infringement of privacy is justified.
An infringement is considered in two stages, requiring justifications for both the gathering and the broadcasting of material where there is a legitimate expectation of privacy.
Harassment and Intrusion into grief or shock IPSO
3. *Harassment * indicates subject to public interest exceptions.
i) Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.
ii) They must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on property when asked to leave and must not follow them.
If requested, they must identify themselves and whom they represent.
iii) Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources.
4. Intrusion into grief or shock
In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively. These provisions should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.
5. *Reporting Suicide
When reporting suicide, to prevent simulative acts care should be taken to avoid excessive detail of the method used, while taking into account the media's right to report legal proceedings.
IMPRESS
5. HARASSMENT
5.1 Publishers must ensure that journalists do not engage in intimidation.
5.2 Except where justified by the public interest, publishers must ensure that journalists:
a) Do not engage in deception;
b) Always identify themselves as journalists and provide the name of their publication when making contact; and
c) Comply immediately with any reasonable request to desist from contacting, following or photographing a person.
9. SUICIDE
9.1 When reporting on suicide or self-harm, publishers must not provide excessive details of the method used or speculate on the motives.
NUJ
6. Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.
BBC 5.4.32
BBC content must respect human dignity. Intimidation, humiliation, intrusion, aggression and derogatory remarks are all aspects of human behaviour that may be discussed or included in BBC output. Some content can be cruel but unduly intimidatory, humiliating, intrusive, aggressive or derogatory remarks aimed at real people (as opposed to fictional characters or historic figures) must not be celebrated for the purposes of entertainment. Care should be taken that such comments and the tone in which they are delivered are proportionate to their target.
7.4.38
We must always balance the public interest in full and accurate reporting against the need to be compassionate and to avoid any unjustified infringement of privacy when we report accidents, disasters, disturbances, violence against individuals or war.
7.4.41
We should normally request interviews with people who are injured or grieving following an accident or disaster by approaching them through friends, relatives or advisers. We should not: put them under pressure to provide interviews; harass them with repeated phone calls, emails, text messages or knocks at the door; stay on their property if asked to leave; normally follow them if they move on.
Ofcom
8.11 Doorstepping for factual programmes should not take place unless a request for an interview has been refused or it has not been possible to request an interview, or there is good reason to believe that an investigation will be frustrated if the subject is approached openly, and it is warranted to doorstep. However, normally broadcasters may, without prior warning interview, film or record people in the news when in public places.
8.16 Broadcasters should not take or broadcast footage or audio of people caught up in emergencies, victims of accidents or those suffering a personal tragedy, even in a public place, where that results in an infringement of privacy, unless it is warranted or the people concerned have given consent.
8.17 People in a state of distress should not be put under pressure to take part in a programme or provide interviews, unless it is warranted.
8.18 Broadcasters should take care not to reveal the identity of a person who has died or of victims of accidents or violent crimes, unless and until it is clear that the next of kin have been informed of the event or unless it is warranted.
8.19 Broadcasters should try to reduce the potential distress to victims and/or relatives when making or broadcasting programmes intended to examine past events that involve trauma to individuals (including crime) unless it is warranted to do otherwise. This applies to dramatic reconstructions and factual dramas, as well as factual programmes.
In particular, so far as is reasonably practicable, surviving victims and/or the immediate families of those whose experience is to feature in a programme, should be informed of the plans for the programme and its intended broadcast, even if the events or material to be broadcast have been in the public domain in the past.
Professional Values CIoJ
Publication refers to all work that is undertaken by editorial staff, during the course of their professional duties, regardless of the means of dissemination or their status as contract, freelance, contributors or staff. Specifically, this excludes private correspondence but includes contributions made in online activities.
2. You will comply with the Editors’ Code of Practice. You will co-operate fully with any enquiry held by the Press Complaints Commission except where sources are compromised, and, subject to any legal advice you may receive.
5) You will not request or accept payment for the publication of editorial matter under whatever guise, including costs relating to colour separation of pictures or other devices, which compromise your editorial independence.
6) You will not accept money, or any other inducement whatsoever, to manipulate editorial comment unless it is clearly identified.
8) You will respect the work of other media professionals and will not seek to undermine exclusive stories submitted by freelance contributors.
10) You will defend the principles of a free press and freedom of speech and will do nothing to damage these principles.
NUJ
A journalist:
1. At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed.
8. Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information and takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge.
10. Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed.
12. Avoids plagiarism.
The NUJ believes a journalist has the right to refuse an assignment or be identified as the author of editorial that would break the letter or spirit of the NUJ code of code.
BBC
The BBC sets out a wide range of professional values that it obliges its employees to comply with in its Editorial Guidelines. They include: